general poll-please participate

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Meyer" <cmpiano@attbi.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2001 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: general poll-please participate


 > > hi piano-tekkers,

> > I'd like to take a poll to determine what percentage of techs on this
list
> > (i wonder how many ARE subscribed??) use ETDs, or are strickly aural; I
> will assume that ETD users use aural skills in conjuntion with their ETDs,
> > perhaps for tuning unisons and doing various tests.
> > Also, those who DO use ETDs, I'd be curious to know what type is used,
> such as SAT, RTC, etc. thanks!
 > > Terry

Real late on this, but have been real busy:
I use the SAT II (the III came out a few months after I ordered the II, of
course) just for the temperament and the octaves, then turn it off and do
unisons by ear.  I can't stand doing unisons-as-you-go, even if it's
supposedly more stable that way --unless the piano is already pretty well in
tune (too tedious, and piano tuning's already tedious enough!).  I leave the
ETD at home one day every month or so, so I'll remember how to set a
temperament by ear and not "forget" to listen to the various partials.  The
ETD saves some time, but not much.  It does help out in noisy environments.
It's not very useful for the highest octave (display not stable enough).
Many times I don't like the contiguous thirds it calculates, and I have to
modify them to make them more pleasing.  Most commonly, F3 - A3 is too fast
and  A3 - C#4 is way too fast, making C#4 - F4 too slow.  After I'm all
done, I do the final tuning check by ear alone.
The darn thing is forever turning itself off or on, even when you've
seemingly done nothing to generate any large amount of static electricity.
It's a lot more bulky than it should be and is shaped wrong!  Most lid props
hold the lid angled toward you (an acute angle), whereas the SAT is angled
backwards (obtuse angle), preventing it from sitting back on the pinblock --
the angle forces it to teeter on the front edge of the pinblock.  And it's
quite often that the piano lid can't be opened all the way up against the
wall because of a picture, a shelf, a thermostat, fixture, whatever....
But, I can usually put the SAT on the fallboard or keys or somewhere else.
I'm disappointed in how often it won't "read" a note's partials, especially
the F3 when setting the stretch numbers,  and I end up having to pluck or
tune solely by ear.   And why it's 1500 bucks when you can buy a whole
computer, monitor, peripherals and all,  for almost half that now, is beyond
me!  But I'm complaining to the wrong persons, I guess  (already expressed
civil-but-firmly-worded dissatisfaction, and submitted numerous questions to
manufacturer, but received no response).  --wishing the current Verituner
had been out when I bought the SAT II,  --David Nereson, RPT, Denver